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Not welcome here: 8 popular places spurning tourists

Locals have had it with visitor hordes

Bixby Bridge on Highway 1 is a highlight of the drive along the Pacific coast near Big Sur, Calif. The area attracts throngs of selfie-takers- and more recently protesters worried about overtourism

Bixby Bridge on Highway 1 is a highlight of the drive along the Pacific coast near Big Sur, Calif. The area attracts throngs of selfie-takers- and more recently protesters worried about overtourism

Photo: DREW KELLY, NYT

Photo: DREW KELLY, NYT

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Bixby Bridge on Highway 1 is a highlight of the drive along the Pacific coast near Big Sur, Calif. The area attracts throngs of selfie-takers- and more recently protesters worried about overtourism

Bixby Bridge on Highway 1 is a highlight of the drive along the Pacific coast near Big Sur, Calif. The area attracts throngs of selfie-takers- and more recently protesters worried about overtourism

Photo: DREW KELLY, NYT

Not welcome here: 8 popular places spurning tourists

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The travel industry has a new word in its lexicon these days: Overtourism. It means that some destinations are so overrun with visitors that the locals have had it. And some of those places, even here in California, are fighting back with restrictions on tourists.

Of course none of our readers are tourists, right? We are all travelers ;) Anyway...

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) just announced this week that worldwide international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased 6 percent to 1.4 billion in 2018, clearly above the 3.7% growth registered in the global economy.

The steady growth of international leisure travel and the soaring demand of tourists for the ultimate Instagram selfie location have led some localities to realize that they just can't handle the crush, so they are taking steps to keep visitor numbers to a comfortable level. Following are some places that really wouldn't mind if you just stayed home.

1. Venice. The romantic Italian city of St. Mark's, canals, and gondoliers has enough to worry about with climate change-related flooding of its historic piazzas, so it's understandable that it has little patience for a rising tide of tourist hordes that now number about 30 million a year. A large portion of those visitors come on shore excursions from cruise ships, meaning they contribute little to the local economy since they don't stay in hotels. Last year, Venice installed gates at the entrance to key tourist spots like St. Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge, so they could bar people from entering when the crowds got too large. And this summer, the city is expected to start charging a new tourist fee that could range anywhere from $2.80 to $11.50 per person, depending on the season. It would apply to visitors who come to the city by boat, bus or train.

2. Barcelona. The number of annual visitors flowing into Barcelona to see its architectural wonders like Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church has hit 32 million, in a city with just 1.6 million residents. Its boulevards in tourist areas have become cluttered with fast food joints and tacky souvenir stands. Local residents have literally marched in the streets to protest the situation, and the city has responded by cracking down on the availability of tourist accommodations. It has imposed thousands of dollars in fines on Airbnb and Homeaway for illegal rentals and has set minimum stay requirements for their guests. It has also shut down hundreds of unlicensed short-stay accommodations and has put a moratorium on the construction of new hotels in the city center.

3. Dubrovnik, Croatia's historic walled Old City -- which juts out into the Adriatic Sea -- was already getting plenty of visitors before it was used as the location for some scenes in HBO's Game of Thrones. That sent the tourist crowds surging to the point where the city installed security cameras two years ago to keep track of how many visitors were heading into the Old City. When the number reached 6,000, the city slowed down further admissions through the five entrances; once it reached 8,000, no more could come in until the crowd thinned out. And no more than half that number could come from cruise ships, which again are a big part of the overcrowding problem. More recently, Dubrovnik has taken steps to cut back the maximum numbers even more, to 4,000 at a time, in order to prevent overcrowding and damage to the Old City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

4. Machu Picchu. The Instagram attractiveness of Peru's Incan mountain fortress is so strong that in 2016, two tourists died when they fell from cliffs while clicking selfies at the site. Access to Machu Picchu has long required the purchase of tickets, but this year the ticketing policy was tightened to keep the tourist numbers at a reasonable level. Tickets are already pricey at $45 per adult. But now, instead of booking a morning or afternoon time slot at the site, tourists musts book a one-hour arrival slot for getting into the ruins and can't stay longer than four hours. Tickets must be purchased through the Machu Picchu website, a tour operator, or the office in Cuzco.

5. Amsterdam. An increasing number of visitors who crowd onto Amsterdam's canal sightseeing boats and troop through its notorious Red Light District (including lots of noisy drunks) have been booking accommodations through Airbnb and other providers of residential short-term rentals. So starting this year, the city is cracking down with a new regulation that allows those providers to rent out their apartments for no more than 30 nights per year, half the previous limit. The city of 1 million gets an estimated 20 million visitors a year. Amsterdam has also doubled its hotel room tax to 6 percent, banned Airbnb rentals altogether in the center of town, and imposed a moratorium on new souvenir shops. It also produced a video warning visitors they could face heavy fines for offenses like disturbing the peace and urinating in public. In December, the city removed the iconic "I AMsterdam" sign from the front of its popular Rijksmuseum because it promotes "mass tourism." (You can still get your selfie at a similar display at Schiphol Airport, though!)

6. Thailand's Maya Beach. Remember the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, set on a remote island off the coast of Thailand? It was filmed at Maya Beach on the island of Koh Phi Phi Leh, and the filmmakers made it so appealing that it was quickly swarmed with international tourists, many of them coming just for the day from nearby Phuket. Things got so bad that last year, the government instituted a total shut-down of the beach from June through October in an effort to protect the area from environmental damage to its coral reefs and marine life. But instead of letting it reopen in October, the authorities decided to keep it closed indefinitely. After it reopens, the number of visitors to Maya Beach is expected to be limited to a maximum of 2,000 a day, and boats would no longer be allowed to anchor in the bay there.

7. Santorini. What's an Aegean cruise or Greek Isles honeymoon without a stop at the picturesque Greek island of Santorini? Some cruise passengers might find out this year, because for 2019 the island is setting a limit on the number of cruise visitors at 8,000 a day. Previously, that number had reached as many as 10,000 a day during peak season, a level that island officials say was putting too much of a strain on the local infrastructure. (And on the poor donkeys that provide transportation up a steep hillside from the port to the city.) Santorini attracts almost 2 million visitors a year, about half of them just stopping for the day from cruise ships.

8. Big Sur. The overtourism problem isn't limited to exotic foreign destinations. Closer to home, Big Sur and the nearby Point Lobos State Natural Reserve are looking at ways to keep numbers to a manageable level. A few weeks ago, Big Sur residents gathered at the scenic Bixby Bridge to greet tourists who stopped for selfies with the bridge and/or the rugged coast in the background. Frustrated by increasing traffic and garbage in the area, the residents urged the visitors to behave respectfully and to be careful climbing around on the rocks. (One website named Bixby Bridge as the most Instagram-worthy destination for 2019.) Meanwhile, Point Lobos could soon become the first California state park to impose an advance reservation requirement on visitors during peak times. You can take the Big Sur pledge here.

Have you encountered any restrictions on tourists...or would you suggest restricting tourists at certain locations? Sound off in the comments!